Michael Che Of ‘SNL’ Has The Craziest Story About Meeting Tommy Hilfiger And Taking $1,000 From Him

Long before comedian Michael Che began co-anchoring ‘The Weekend Update’ on Saturday Night Live with Colin Jost he used to sell homemade designer t-shirts on the streets of Manhattan. Later this Summer, SNL will roll out ‘The Weekend Update’ as a standalone show that will be on TV three times a week, and Michael Che was a guest on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon last night to talk about it. During the interview, Jimmy asked Michael Che if he’d always wanted to be a comedian and that’s when viewers were treated to a truly bizarre story.

While selling t-shirts on the street long before he ever knew that he wanted to become a comedian, Michael Che was approached by a rich kid who said he was going to bring his dad by to purchase a t-shirt. That dad happened to be Tommy Hilfiger, one of the most famous fashion designers to ever live. Tommy Hilfiger offered Michael Che a job on the spot and took him to his offices to introduce him to everyone. Tommy even busted out his wallet and handed Michael Che $1,000 in cash with some speech about how he was going to make all of Michael Che’s dreams come true in the fashion world.

So what did Michael Che do? He took the cash, and then he never showed up to work again. This is something that’s been haunting Michael Che for years, and he’s been avoiding Tommy Hilfiger at parties ever since. So, to make up for this incident Michael Che wrote Tommy Hilfiger a check for $1,000 last night on Fallon, and Jimmy claims he’s going to get that check into the hands of Tommy Hilfiger so that bygones can be bygones…Michael Che is making bank these days, but do you really think he needed to repay Tommy Hilfiger? I’m going with ‘nah’. Tommy made a poor assessment in thinking that Michael Che was going to spend his life in fashion and make the Hilfiger brand a ton of money. That mistake’s on Tommy Hilfiger, not Michael Che, right? There was no work contract signed that Michael Che was in breach of. Was it a shitty thing to take that cash and bolt? Sure, but from a work perspective he didn’t break any written rules.